Ramsey gets his shirt...a bit too small

Well, Aaron has been given his Arse shirt, so this must mean that it's for real. You know, you never can tell these days. The official word is that it's for an undisclosed fee, which is typical Arse, but everyone's still bandying the £5 million sum about. It's probably more than that, dependent on performances. Kinda like the Theo formula. Looks like he hasn't been given his number yet. (It also looks a tad too small in the official photo. Hasn't been fitted and numbered yet, poor boy). I say give him #14. haha. Nah. Seriously. Next best option is 27.

It is all becoming really clear as daylight what the whole Ade-Milan talk was about. I mean, we all know that those @!#$ agents are behind all the worst shit in the world (including weapons of mass destruction), but the least they could do is attempt to gloss it over a little bit. See this shit, for example. Basically, it's all the agent:

"Adebayor is happy at Arsenal, but when a footballer receives an offer from a team such as Milan it is difficult to say no. However, it is difficult to say whether he will play for Milan (next season). I know they have contacted Arsenal and it is now up to the English club."

So what we have is the typical game of cat and mouse. First, Ade will go into talks with Arse about his new contract, asking for £80,000 a week, which I must add, represents more than double (to be precise 128%) of his old wage of £35,000 a week. Step two, Arse will say @!#$ off. Don't be stupid. We could give you £60,000, but you gotta prove yourself one more season man. Step three, Ade and his agent will say, @!#$ you too, we're moving to Milan, you cheapskates. Mathieu warned me about you bloody penny-pinchers. Step Four, Le Boss says, hold a minute. Let me make a phone call...."Hello? Could I speak to Rocky please? Yes, Rocky Santa Claus. Thanks...(pause) Rocky! Arsene here. Yeah, as we were saying. Are you on? Yes, I'll pay you £50,000 a week, and that's double what you're getting right? Tell you what. Make that £60,000. Okay, see you tomorrow? Great. I've got everything in place." Step Five, Le Boss says to Ade and agent, get out of my sight, you two @!#$-ing bitches. Good luck in the UEFA Cup.

Not much other Arse news about, so that means we have no choice but to talk about the French disaster in Berne. Le Boss has his spiel on it, which I tend to agree with:

"Lack of success is not on based on a lack of quality (in the French squad) but confidence and conviction seem to be lacking.

"There is a little something missing, effectiveness, less of a killer touch. France produced some nice chances but were a bit lacking in their finishing."

It's really pathetic. While you could feel sorry for them at one-nil that they had the good penalty turned down, and having Henry inexplicably missing, to lose 4-1 is really really unacceptable. With the kind of talent they had at their disposal, it makes no more sense than to point the finger at the boss. Domenech, who obviously doesn't have it in him to motivate what must be a bunch of narcissistic arrogant playeurs. There was talk at the start that they were overflowing in talent, which is no doubt true. But talent is nothing without at least an iota of desire and commitment. Sagna and Clichy must be half sniggering to themselves that at least they had nothing to do with it. Further on the Arse front, it was nice to see RVP helping himself to the buffet, and setting up Sneijder wonder last goal. Good for him. Wonder if he ran over and did that stupid Ade-Henry jig with his old friend in bleu.

On the other hand, Italy at least showed some desire, but their age and general lousiness eventually came through too obviously. Saved by the skin of their teeth, the glove of Buffon, the foot of Buffon, and the crap penalty of Mutu. I bet Mutu had half his mind on his regular employment with Fiorentina as he stood over that penalty. "Oh God...if I score this, they're going to kill me, kill my family..." What a bleeding let off.

Now what Holland need to do is lose to Romania and it won't matter what the two biggest losers of EURO 2008 do. Romania probably deserve to get through more than either team.

Despite their unbelievable first two performances, however, I still have this nagging sense that somehow, somewhere, they may just fail to deliver in the end. Touch wood, but it's just too much too soon. The "Group of Death" my arse, in any case. More like the walk-over group of Holland.

So while premature, and Spain yet to play their second game, here are my predictions for the quarters:

Portugal v Germany
Croatia v Czech Republic
Holland v Sweden (isn't this like the quarters in 2004 too?)
Spain v Romania

Cesc has scored, so has RVP, let's see if Cesc does it again tonight.